Believe me when I say I was extremely surprised when I recently had the opportunity to interact with several sales representatives from various mid to large sales companies and none of them knew what inbound prospecting was.
Their approach to prospecting was to purchase a list, drive around and stop and cold call. They were extremely knowledgeable about their product and how it solved potential problems the customer might have; however, I really questioned how much they really understood about the buyer.
Shift in Buyer Power
I’m sure you’ll agree the internet has changed how buyers select products and services and how they make decisions. They now have access to information at their fingertips, shifting the power to them. Yet, have you transformed your traditional sales approach to address this evolution?
Wait, what do you mean the power has shifted? As a sales rep, I’m in charge of the selling process!
Think about how you make buying decisions today. You start with online research and explore all aspects of your options, pricing and requirements. You don’t need to talk with a sales rep. You can find almost any information you want about a particular product or service online without picking up the phone. In fact, according to Google, today's business buyers do not contact suppliers directly until 57 percent of the purchase process is complete.
The “I’m in control” sales mentality is a thing of the past - thanks to the Internet. This shift in buyer power has radically changed how sales reps need to manage leads.
With inbound sales, the sales rep understands, based on buyer behavior insights, how to interact at each stage of the buyer journey, from the buyer’s first point of engagement with your company to a close. They understand how to personalize their approach and deliver information specific to the buyer in various online and offline channels. The days of one-size-fits-all sales are over!
Assess Your Inbound Sales Readiness
If you and your sales team want to attract, nurture and convert leads into sales more efficiently with minimal waste and effort and meet sales quotas, then maybe it’s time to re-evaluate your current sales processes and systems. If you’re not keeping up with today’s buyer, someone else will.
ð Do you have a process in place for listening to the market and identifying active and passive prospects based upon their context?
ð Do you have a process in place for social selling?
ð Are the sales reps’ LinkedIn pages optimized for selling?
ð Have you mapped out the buyer’s journey for each phase of the sales funnel?
ð Have you created your ideal company profile?
ð Have you created various personas within the company profile?
ð Have you have clearly defined each level of the sales funnel?
ð Do you have a Service Level Agreement in place between marketing and sales?
ð Do you have personalized sequencing processes in place to touch the prospect?
ð Have you established an outreach content library that can be customized and used in various channels?
ð Is the outreach content based upon educational and helpful information that would solve the prospects’ challenges?
ð Are case studies readily available to prove the ROI of your product or service?
ð Is there a process in place to monitor trigger events?
ð Do you have a CRM in place? If so, is it being fully utilized by the sales reps? Is data accurate? Are behavior insights being monitored?
ð Is the CRM integrated with your automated marketing platform or other systems to reduce data duplication and inefficiencies?
ð Do you provide advisory/consultative sales coaching to your sales reps?
ð Are proposals customized and developed around challenges, goals, plans, timelines, consequences, implications, budget and authority?
Did you answer “no” to several of the questions? The good news is: all of that is feasible. Imagine the power you gain when you have the right processes and information in place. Not only are you ahead of the buyer as they go through the buyer journey process, you can be steps ahead of your competitors.
Adopting the inbound sales methodology may be the next best step for leveraging higher sales quotas from your sales team. Talk with an inbound sales expert at Marketing Essentials today!
